Four Books and Five Classics

"Four Books" and "Five Classics" are the Confucian classics in China."Five Classics" refer to The Bookof Changes, Collection of Ancient Texts, The Book of Songs, The Rites, and theSpring and Autumn Annals. They are Confucian classics stressed since thePre-Qin period. Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty took out Great Learning andThe Doctrine of the Mean from The Rites and called them four books togetherwith The Analects of Confucius and Mencius. The Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties confinedthe scope for setting examination paper for imperial examination within the FourBooks and finally the eight-part essay system was formed. Four Books hence becametraditional basic textbooks in China and were compulsory books of every intellectualand their position thus surpassed that of Five Classics. Some people also calledFour Books as Oriental "bible" to indicate their profound influenceon Chinese traditional culture.